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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Antibes Green

A customer recently brought me a very old vanity and mirror to paint for her daughters' room. They went to pick it up in the rain one night from her mom's house, in the back of a truck. So when they got it to my house, the veneer was looking pretty rough. It was peeling off in a lot of places so I knew immediately I was going to have to remove all of it. I asked what color she wanted it and she said a shade of green. She brought her daughters' pillow sham with her and said she liked the color of the leaf. I mixed 3 parts of Antibes Green with 1 part of Old White to make the perfect shade of green. First step was to remove all of the outer veneer off of the top. There are really two tops since it has shelves, so I removed all of that. The veneer under that one was just a poplar veneer that was honestly starting to come loose in places too and the rain certainly didn't help it. I glued and clamped it in all of those spots to prevent it from coming up. After removing all of the veneer, I got out the putty and started filling in all of the knicks and imperfections. Then I sanded everything down real well. I also sanded the tops where the veneer was removed, just to give me a completely smooth surface to paint. Next, I cleaned everything good with Murphy Oil Soap's Wood Cleaner. Finally, it was time to begin painting. I painted the first coat of everything, then gave it a second coat of this beautiful green color that I mixed. I applied clear wax to everything, distressed it all and then applied dark wax. I must say, it's very pretty and I think the girls will have fun playing dress-up in front of it for years to come.